Hiked this one on a beautiful clear spring day with Baring Mountain swallowing the sky most of the way up. Great views. Beware the rock fall. I would never hike this below another party. When hiking with a partner would take some careful scrambling in pitches to do safely.

My route took me to saddle above the South gully and then I was blocked from walking the ridge by poor quality snow in a questionable cornice-y formation (I assume this is the main route). Was able to get to the summit by down climbing a bit and traversing around to the South West, followed by a nice uphill scramble, 2 parts of which were probably class 4. For reference I was nearby the 2 outcroppings with the cool cube-shaped stacked rocks. Once above these there is a small clearing which was delightful to walk through, followed by a final easy scramble to the top. 4 hours to the saddle, 30 minutes route finding to the summit. Took me 5 hours down, an hour of which was spent down climbing the class 4 part off the summit.

First climb after 7 weeks with little-to-no physical activity. Wet boulders were exhausting, veggie belays cut up my hands, and the snow was crap. After some time and energy lost due to navigation issues, I only made it to the second waterfall. We will be back!

1st attempt, June 1, 2013: Wet rock and crappy snow turned us around. Made it above the second waterfall. I'll be back when its dry.

2nd attempt, May 12 2014: All 3 steps in the gully were covered with good snow, but encountered rotten loose snow above 5000 feet. 250 feet below the summit we watched 3 small avalanches come down within a 20 minute span. We decided to turn around at that point descend quickly.

Video by Lars(ThorsChosen):

3rd attempt, July 10, 2014: I went back solo and was successful without snow on the route. See photos and trip report here.

then you'll love this one. Both the first and second gullies filled with unstable, dangerous rock. You don't ever want to be following another party up this thing. Great views, though. A friend of mine said it best: "Friends don't let friends climb Merchant."

You definitely earn this peak. Routefinding is pretty easy- go up, take the route of least resistance. Between the second and third waterfall is a 15 foot vertical wall of dirt and loose rock- when water is low, drop down to the right and find your way around it.

Third time up this year, all solo; first time to the summit. The route is definitely much easier when the two gullies are still filled with snow. Beware the very, very serious avalanche danger.

We climbed the south gully route with poor visibility. The stream was running low, so it wasn't necessary to climb over the large rock at "step 3." I agree that the "step 2" slab section was the trickiest, and used the eastern veggie belays on the way down. Using the attached route, we didn't encounter the last "high cliffy waterfall" section described in Brian's excellent route description. There were some steep, unstable sections in the gullies so be careful.

Started around 9 am. Finding the rocky streambed was easier than I expected and made my way up fairly quickly. Passed Step 1 easily and was feeling good. Then at Step 2 I ran into wet slabs of algae-covered granite and "treed" myself. Did some shaky-legged downclimbing and figured I would try to bushwhack up the right side in the woods. Did some vertical yarding up maples and cedars to gain a ledge than led back to the climbers path and passed this section.

Then I came to a place where some huge boulders had lodged in a small space in the gully. I ended up pulling myself up and over one while hanging off into the air. After that it was just basic scrambling up the south gully to where you pick up the Upper Gully. Did some wet scrambling up under the cave-like cliff and then more bushwhacking up to another streambed. When that one ran out, I bushwhacked right into the heather slopes and yet another streambed. This one ended in more heather slopes and then it was pick and chose up to the summit. Summit block was another scramble. Took me 5 and 1/2 hours up, spent half an hour up top and then 3 hours 55 minutes down back to the car. Very satisfying climb with some pucker factor thrown in.